Turning Japanese...
I am loving the Japanese influence on sewing and crafts, the designs and colours just take my breath away. My favourite fabric at the moment is this Aqua Birds design by Echino (right) which can be purchased from The Eternal Maker or Clothkits.
Plus you can’t fail to love the cute miniature designs of the Kokka fabrics such as the Little Red Riding Hood fabric pictured to the left, from Celtic Fushion Fabrics. Fabric lovers blog True Up feature a Japanese fabric of the week on a 
Monday that is well worth checking out.
I wanted to share a few of the resources I have found in my quest for Japanese fabrics. Celtic Fusion Fabrics have one of the best ranges of Japanese Fabrics that I have seen, including designs by Kokka, Echino, Kinkame, Lecien, Nani Iro and Shinzi Katoh. The Eternal Maker have a large range of Echino fabrics as well as Kokka fabrics and Lecien.
One thing to be warey of is that a lot of fake Japanese fabrics have arisen lately, details of how to spot them can be found here. Always ensure you buy from a reputable buyer, if you are unsure then ask around, there are always people willing to give help and advice. We have many reputable stores on site which stock Japanese fabrics, those named above plus The Cotton Spool, Decorative Cloth, Seamstar, Raystitch and Fancy Moon amongst others.
If yo
u are looking for something a little bit different Clothaholics have a large range of authentic Japanese Kimono fabrics. They are also the UK’s only supplier of Genshodo Indigo fabrics. These exclusive handprinted fabrics may be expensive but would look stunning whatever you decided to make with them.
Japan Crafts (who we recently interviewed here) have some lovely Japanese panels (as pictured to the right) and fat quarters as well as Japanese craft kits and textile products made by the site owner. Also if you were wanting to learn more about Japanese crafts Kate, the owner of Japan Crafts, offers talks and workshops, and appears regularly on Create and Craft Channel.
For Japanese craft books M is for Make offer original Japanese pattern books, along with English translation of sewing terms and a guide on their blog for using the books. Some of their books are currently part of their up to 40% New Year sale.
The book pictured below is from their collection.
Another great place for Japanese craft books, ribbons and funky fabrics sent straight from Japanese, many of which you would not find in the UK is This and That From Japan on Etsy. This jam packed online store is full of Japanese treasures plus they have a sale on at the moment with with 25% off everything until the 16th of January 2011.
If you would prefer English language craft books I would recommend Search Press who have book on Japanese quilt blocks, embroidery and amigurumi, RU Craft whos books include Japanese Calligrpahy, quilting, embroidery and sashiko and Anova Books whos books include Making Kimonos and Japanese clothes and Shibori.
